My friends and I were looking for a boat launch while on a paddling trip in Rhode Island. We were hauling three kayaks on a trailer and perchance noticed in the mirrors that the plastic boat was hanging off and dragging her stern on the asphalt. How long a time was anybody's guess. After a few expletives we pulled off to the side of the road and discovered that the stern was worn completely through due to road friction at a point at the very top of the deck, just above where one would attach a rudder. The hole is about one inch in diameter. We duct-taped her well and were relieved that in moderate seas she did not take water anywhere near the damage. Nevertheless I am curious about how we'd go about repairing the damage. I seem to recall a recent thread on fixing holes in plastic, but am not sure it entailed a hole bored the entire way through the deck. Could we bond a piece of plastic over the hole? Rivet a piece of aluminum, then seal it with ptex? Otherwise plug it? Will our local boat builders (Walden Kayak or Old Towne) do better work for moderate fees? Is the job too tricky for amateurs? Thanks in advance for any advice! Tom And... I am still thanking my Maker it was not my Gulfstream or my other buddy's Pygmy that sustained this indecency... though I have to admit the venerable yellow Old Towne looks like a ripe banana with the black plastic tape wrapped round her stern tip. Almost worth leaving that way, if not for safety's sake. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Try plastic welding with a heat gun. If the plastic is linear link, it should be possible (get the manufacturer to mail you a slice of plastic from a broken boat). If the plastic is cross link, you might have a problem, for it does not weld well. Jack of Jack's Pastic Welding developed a technique for plastic welding cross link, but I don't know if they do that sort of thing anymore. Try asking them at http://www.jpwinc.com/ Cheers, Richard Culpeper *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> very top of the deck, just above where one would attach a rudder. The hole > is about one inch in diameter. We duct-taped her well and were relieved > that in moderate seas she did not take water anywhere near the damage. > Nevertheless I am curious about how we'd go about repairing the damage. I > seem to recall a recent thread on fixing holes in plastic, but am not sure > it entailed a hole bored the entire way through the deck. > > Could we bond a piece of plastic over the hole? Rivet a piece of aluminum, > then seal it with ptex? Otherwise plug it? Will our local boat builders > (Walden Kayak or Old Towne) do better work for moderate fees? Is the job > too tricky for amateurs? You may try such methods (I didn't try them): 1) weld in a patch with a heat-gun, 2) if #1 doesn't work, then epoxy a fiberglass patch (adding color pigment if you find such), overlapping the hole and rivet it (probably while epoxy is still wet?). My poly Prijon manual recommends fixing *small* holes with a hot-glue gun (yes, hot-glue gun - not heat-gun) and manufacturer's polyethilene sticks of the same material. This is important - welded patch or insert material should be the same as the hull Hot-glue gun has lower power than a heat-gun and is not intended for welding of plastics, but if it's not a typo, than Germans know what they are doing. On the other hand, heat-gun provides so much heat even on the low setting, and on so much wider area (due to air blower) that you should be careful to avoid melting the hole wider than the patch or doing other damage on the hull. Yes, I think, heat-gun might be a tool tricky enough for an amateur (not to mention its cost from $25). I doubt that polyethilene can be glued; epoxy may work after sand-papering the surface (grate 120), - again I didn't try that and don't know how epoxy would stick to polyethylene + water exposure. Riveting aluminum + sealing would be the safest way meaning skills and achieved results, though not esthetically pleasing. Btw, did anybody try epoxing poly-kayaks? *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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